6 Step Strategy To Scale Your SaaS Startup

No one said starting up a business was easy and there have been many organizations that have crashed and burned without evening making it to their first yearly quarter. Scaling up your business requires a lot more hard work, perseverance and a well planned out strategy.

From the idea to the final product, the amount of time and work that goes into it deserves every bit of success possible. However, without a strategy in place, your SaaS startup could go nowhere. Understanding data and having marketing knowledge can all help contribute to your company’s success in the SaaS market.

In this article, we’ll help you create a six-step strategy that covers all the essentials needed to help your SaaS startup grow from strength to strength.

1.Focus on customer acquisition

According to Invesp, 44% of companies have a great focus on customer acquisition than customer retention. Whilst retention is just as important as your acquisition it’s good to prioritize your efforts on getting customers to discover your startup and to nurture them into paying customers.

It’s good to identify your target audience before you go making any effort to acquire your customers. Who are they? Define the customer’s age, location, gender, business nature, interests and pain points they have as a business.

Website analytics platforms like Google Analytics or SEMrush can help track who is coming onto your site, what web pages they’re engaging with and where they’re coming from to find you. This data can help you make more informed decisions on how to reach your customers.

Other efforts include focus groups and organizing brand perception surveys to gather intel on your startup’s presence on the market. You could also do competitor research, to look at what your competitors are up to. Market analysis can help to see what keywords you need to target when approaching organic and paid searches.

2.Create a knowledge base

Retention is clearly an important part of business, with 89% of companies saying excellent customer service plays an influential role. So with that being said, you may find it beneficial to create a knowledge base.

As the business grows, so does the queries and knowledge needed by your customers. With more customers to serve, it’s good to have a collection of resources readily available for them. You can provide quicker and more efficient support, which will directly benefit many of your sales agents that are facing repetitive queries.

With this knowledge base in place, it means you’re able to free up your resources that can be used elsewhere. Your knowledge base might consist of helpful articles, guides and frequently asked questions.

There are many software options to choose from when creating a knowledge base. Zendesk is a popular one and offers a free trial, which is useful for startups that have limited funds.

3.Make use of your social media for connections

A social media strategy should be part of your startup’s overall strategy. Having a strong media presence can help highlight the values and benefits that your product delivers. It’s wise to only select social media platforms where your audience lies, rather than all of them.

If you’re a SaaS startup brand for B2B sales, then LinkedIn is an obvious choice. For B2C sales, visual platforms like Instagram might be most effective. Social media can help you connect with your customers on a more personal level too. As a startup, gaining your customer’s trust is important and one that takes time and effort.

It’s part of the process of nurturing your leads so that they are more inclined to convert to a paying customer. According to Sprout Social, 21% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that they can reach on social media, so it pays to utilize social media for connecting with your audience.

4.Create high-quality and valuable content

The creation of content is critical in today’s internet-heavy world. One of the best ways to get your startup noticed is by providing consistent and high-quality content that’s valuable to your audience. The right type of content will help you convert your leads into customers, whilst educating and informing a wider audience on your products and services.

It’s certainly difficult to manage this all on your own and so outsourcing these resources can be helpful. From link building for SaaS startup on other websites to creating content via your website, it’s all helpful to boosting your online presence and scaling up your business.

Find topics of interest that your business can write about easily, whether it’s through the products you offer or knowledge of the SaaS industry in general. Throwing in your two cents could lead to becoming a notable expert in the industry. Offering solutions to customers’ pain points means you’ll help convince more of your readers to become customers.

Content marketing though is more than just articles, so it’s good to have a strategy in place that help boost traffic on all platforms or channels you advertise on.

5.Try paid services and offer free trials or incentives

Everyone loves a good freebie, right? Whilst you may have brainstormed a few tactics on how to secure customers’ trust and belief in your product or service, it’s good to offer an incentive.

This might be in the form of a free trial or a basic version of the product or service that offers enough to pique their interest in what more it can do with a subscription.

Paid marketing platforms are also a good focal point when it comes to drawing in your audience. Using platforms like Google Ads for marketing your campaigns can be effective if done correctly. As a startup, you might not be able to offer much but extending that olive branch to any prospective customers is going to do wonders for future growth.

The difficulty of SaaS customers is that they don’t always convert all at once, rather they filter through as and when they need your services. So with that in mind, it’s always good to be proactive in offering incentives.

6.Consider referral marketing

Spreading the word about your product or service is key and having something like referral marketing in place, can help produce a ripple effect for your company sales. Referral marketing is highly effective in helping convert customers who have been eyeing up your product for a while.

Just like the incentives, to successful implement referral marketing, you need to give your existing clients a reason for extending a positive review to those who may become customers.

This might be a free month off their subscription or access to new features or services that have not yet been launched to existing customers. Exclusivity and incentivizing your clients can be a great way to reward referrals and encourage this form of marketing moreso. You may already have plenty of customers who are already singing your praises!

The benefits of a strategy for your SaaS startup

There are many benefits of having a strategy for your SaaS startup. Without one, you may find it difficult to get off the ground when it comes to acquiring customers and maintaining their expectations.

It provides focus and direction

With any strategy, it can provide a focus and a sense of direction. With clear intentions of what your SaaS startup wants to achieve, better decision-making will likely follow. These decisions will help sustain the business and drive it forward, rather than it falling apart or remaining stagnant.

Sometimes as a business, you can find yourself veering off course and a little guidance can prove quite helpful.

Helps with customer relationships and nurturing leads

Customers are a priority for many businesses, especially small startups that have either yet to acquire customers or only have a small selection of them.

How you go about maintaining those relationships with your clients is important in order to keep them on your side. The SaaS industry is a competitive one and with so many products and services available, the consumers are in control. If you’re seen to be attentive and willing to spend more time nurturing your leads, you’re likely to retain your customers for longer.

In general, a strategy can help you to be proactive, rather than reactive. This is a trait in business that’s essential to have in order to help grow and better your opportunities.

Implement a strategy for your SaaS startup

In order to give your startup the best possible chance of success, a strategy can be helpful to have in place. Consider who your audience is and how to reach them and realize the impact quality content and interaction over social media can have.

Use these various methods to help not only acquire but to retain customers and you should see a wealth of success come your way.